Looks like a great cartridge but there isn't much to gain out of it over the win mag. Having a 338 wm, a 340 wby, and an RUM it's hard wining that extra velocity. Honestly if the win mag didn't exist it would be the perfect 338 .
416Tanzan don't use an M70EW a M70 ultimate shadow in 338 chop the barrel down to 24 inches. You can get them in stainless for 850.00. Honestly you can put an RUM on the 70 also. Aside from brass the RUM makes for an awesome 338 even in a 24".
Again, this Ruger 338 would be great if the win mag didn't exist otherwise I'm happy with the win mag. Always gets me, a guy owns a 30-06 and passes up a 338 to get a 300 win mag lol

I see that PTG has the 338/375 Ruger Campfire reamer in their reamer list .

I presently now have a long throated fully custom 338..My testing shows it will equal the 340 Wby with all bullet weights..I used a .375 Swift bottom metal and LW barrel, has all the bells and whistles...shoots an inch everytime with 300 gr. Woodleighs and 225 gr. Fed factory ammo...nice piece of wood..but put it up for sale on one of the blogs that sell guns and shoot my Ruger African..I'm just to rough on a rifle to use a custom gun. I build those so I can afford to hunt!

I am sticking with the Ruger crf reciever so I need wider. If I went longer I would build it into a 340 Weatherby. .

Well its so easy to build a long throated .338 Win and just use a .375 bottom metal..Mine is a 1x10 twist Lothar Walthar barrel and its shoots the short .338 factory or handloaded stuff and the 300 gr. Nosler Accubond equally accurate and at 2700 FPS as I got all the powder space I needed with the conversion...I couldn't ask fo more. I just have a hard time justifying the need for more power than the std. .338 Win., its mild of recoil and really kills both small and large animals very well indeed. but its there if I ever have the need I suppose and I done done it anyway!

338 ruger LONG would be a perfectly paired with a standard length action


its just physics -
frankly i am surprised that this isn't a factory round

15% difference in case capacity CAN'T be over come without huge increased pressure. 340 vs 338 win

Tanzan,
Your correct on that, a .338 isn't a buffalo or DGR other than the big bears, where its a fine round...My justification to my long throated .338 was to have just enough gun to make me feel comfortable if I was hunting PG in DG country as I have used .338 a couple of times under Tanzania conditions...Once on a buffalo with a wire on his leg, another time the PH took my 404, gave me my .338 Win with a scope and said shoot thru that hole in the bush as it lines up with the buffs heart, and it worked fine in both incidence. Another time I just tested a GS custom flat nose solid on a buffalo with my .338 and it was impressive..

At some point it dawned on me the 375 H&H was the best compliment to any big bore in DG country, perfect for PG and near perfect for any of the big stuff..

Ray, et al.,

If a factory rifle would be marketed with a 338 Ruger (2.58" case), I would be interested for North America. Maybe $600-900 and then a little tinkering/bedding for accuracy. If the factory issue would adjust the neck length closer to a caliber (.34") it would be even better, but I would make do with any neck length.

For Africa, my current "old age" wish is a 416 Ruger. That might be optimum with all-around bullets like CEB 307-grain tipped Raptor, 330 gn GSC, or 350 TTSX. Light for carrying, easy recoil at 2600 fps and 2700fps, and good for anything out to 300 yards. The 416 Ruger could back up my 500 and then take over full time duty if and when the 500 seems too severe. Lord willing, that will still be many years off.

Too many different irons in the fire atm to build one . And , I'm hoping Ruger will come to their senses and just offer it in a factory stainless Hawkeye. For the target boys maybe they could upscale the RPR to fit it. That would be cool. But, I just want a 24" barreled stainless Hawkeye !

They are doing too much rev generating with the push feeds atm. I fear for the future of the M77 MkII et all.
And I am impatiently waiting for them to bring out the GunSight Scout in 6.5 Creedmoor.
Tho I could have both these rifles built, I would rather just buy them factory.

quote:

I'm hoping Ruger will come to their senses and just offer it in a factory stainless Hawkeye.

Looks like they'll have two early orders.

My bottom line is I have tried to improve on the .338 Win in various ways, but all the big nasty recoiling noisy monster .338,s are all blow and no go..None of them will beat the regular .338 Win by more than a 150 FPS, and that's only if I don't reload for my .338 Win. I won't quote my loads, it upsets RIP!

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
My bottom line is I have tried to improve on the .338 Win in various ways, but all the big nasty recoiling noisy monster .338,s are all blow and no go..None of them will beat the regular .338 Win by more than a 150 FPS, and that's only if I don't reload for my .338 Win. I won't quote my loads, it upsets RIP!

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Now that's funny Rip, good on ya! Maybe you could coach Jeffe on upgrading his since of humor!!!

quote:

RIP: (from a thread on Brass for 26 Ripmoor):
If you want to to do a .338/.375 Ruger it can be as simple as running a .375 Ruger case into a .338 Ruger Compact Magnum die.
One-step brass forming!
The neck length on the .338 RCM is 0.320", and shoulder is 30 degrees

Yes, the simplicity of it. That might be enough to get the nod over the 338 Norma for a standard length action. The 338 Ruger would not need to have the feeding rails or the bolt face altered but would use everything the same as the 338WinMag except the chamber.

So if Capoward sees this, or someone interested, one question would be whether a 338 Ruger (using an RCM neck) would clean up a 338WinMag chamber? If so, then things really get simple.

Sticking the .338 Ruger Compact Magnum neck and shoulder on top of a .375 Ruger case:

If you grow a .338 RCM to longer length then it is not a "compact magnum" anymore.
Not a "non-compact magnum" either, just a "magnum," a ".338 Ruger Magnum."
Simple.

Call it the ".338/.375 Ruger" to have most of the headstamp on your Hornady factory brass.

The .338 Ruger magnum is about 12 % greater in case capacity than the .338 WinMag.
I think that is a worthwhile improvement, but alas, I am an afflicted "wildcatter."



You can see from the above that the ".338 Ruger Magnum" will clean up the .338 Winchester Magnum chamber just perfectly.

They will meet at the same diameter in the belt area of the .338WinMag, but the case is longer enough with the .338 RugerMag that it ought to clean up the neck and throat of the .338 WinMag chamber.
The .338 WinMag throat by SAAMI is only a 2-degree leade angle starting from the .3450" diameter at the end of the chamber's case-mouth chamfer. Zero parallel-side free-bore.
So you get to clean up the throat completely too with your new .338 Ruger Magnum throat, any throat you want.

Reloading dies: Just use a .375 Ruger FL for body sizing and a .338 RCM die (set to proper headspace) for shoulder and neck sizing, decapping, and bullet seating.

Of course it would be best to have a custom reamer and headspace gages to use.




The 33 Ripmoor is only slightly different from the .338 Ruger Magnum. The 33 ripmoor has shorter neck by .003" and a narrower shoulder diameter by .001".
Splitting hairs, but the 33 Ripmoor and 26 Ripmoor would use the same headspace gage.





The 33 Ripmoor is 13 % bigger than the .338 WinMag.


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Thank you, RIP.

Yes, it looks like a 338 Ruger will clean up a 338WinMag nicely.

I didn't understand the 29 degree 55minute shoulder on the RCM. In AmmoGuide 338RCM they list a 30 degree shoulder.

And on cutting a chamber, I would assume that a custom reamer would need to be made.
If a 338RCM reamer were pushed in the appropriate amount, it would create a very straight .532" (.533") base for the first 1/2" of the body.
With such a cut, a 375Ruger die could be used for depriming and sizing the case body, but it would leave a little bit of gap for extra blowout (0.001"-0.002") toward the base of the body, and a 375Ruger reamer could not be used for the initial chamber cut, or am I missing something?

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
Thank you, RIP.

Yes, it looks like a 338 Ruger will clean up a 338WinMag nicely.

I didn't understand the 29 degree 55minute shoulder on the RCM. In AmmoGuide 338RCM they list a 30 degree shoulder.

30*5' on the 300RCM and 29*55' on the 338RCM:

That is how the RCBS Cartridge Designer Tool reads it and assigns the shoulder angle when the "correct" linear diameters and lengths are put into the program.
I trust that program, but sometimes if you are adjusting dimensions by 1/10,000th of an inch by approaching via decrement from above or by increment from below,
the shoulder angle might not come out exactly right to the minute of angle.
We are rounding off to the nearest 1/1000th of an inch anyway.
So just round it off to the nearest degree and call it 30 degrees this time so I do not have to fiddle around with it again, it came out right on the drawing of the .338/.375 Ruger anyway.



Looks like the shoulder angle of the 338 RCM would be even smaller than 29*55' if the shoulder diameter (.516") had not been increased by .001" compared to the 300RCM and .375 Ruger (.515"), as long as the neck length and the N1 and N2 neck diameters are kept constant.

So, the 300RCM and .338RCM are both supposed to have 30* shoulder angles. No big deal. So it is what it is.
If you do your own reamer you can get it exact, i.e., let Dave Manson get it right.

And on cutting a chamber, I would assume that a custom reamer would need to be made.

The 33 Ripmoor could be done with a 26 Ripmoor reamer using a larger, removable pilot to properly fit the .338-cal rifling. Then use a separate neck-and-throat reamer. However that is fraught with potential human error for gunsmith precision in where to stop pushing in that neck-and-throat reamer. And it still requires finding the proper neck and throat reamer or getting it made.
It is best to get one "complete" chamber reamer made to do the cartridge in one "ream." Of course.


If a 338RCM reamer were pushed in the appropriate amount, it would create a very straight .532" (.533") base for the first 1/2" of the body.

True that and not a good idea.

With such a cut, a 375Ruger die could be used for depriming and sizing the case body, but it would leave a little bit of gap for extra blowout (0.001"-0.002") toward the base of the body, and a 375Ruger reamer could not be used for the initial chamber cut, or am I missing something?

You are not missing anything.

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416Tanzan,

Apologies for rushing the drawings of the 300 RCM and .338 RCM.

Corrected:



Previous error:



I did some 10,000ths of an inch corrections to both on the base to shoulder lengths and they both came out to exactly 30 degrees.

To get the drawing right you have to specify to the 1/10,000th inch resolution.
There might be a few 1/10,000ths +/- tolerance there that would still show up as 30 degree shoulders,
to get the rounding to the nearest 1/1000th inch correct, you see, but I have fiddled with this enough for now. Later ...




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Just reread this thread, to clear up "the trap" I posted on the 9.3x62 and most agreed it was a trap to not go with a 9.3x64 or even a 9.3x62 and I agree whole heartedly...But at the time it was nearly if not impossible to find brass for either, and I wanted a 9.3 and easy to find .338 brass made since..Today I don't feel like one could improve much on a 9.3x64, its an awesome and overlooked caliber, and the more popular 9.3x62 is hard to beat as a second rifle on safari or in the deep timber of Idaho looking for a bull elk..but alas my .338 Win has taked first place for all that's larger than deer, in the NA continent.

Well, I have to respectfully say that the .366" cartridges are easy to improve on when looking at today's bullet selections.

Yes, the 9.3x62 and 9.3x64 can get the job done in the timber. But high-BC bullets for long-range options greatly favor the .338"s.

For example, CEB has a fine set of MTH bullets that are all-copper and California-legal with high BC's for resisting the wind in a 400 yard shot across a slope. I'm planning to try out a 200 grainer with a .570 BC at 3000-3025 with a new 338WinMag this Fall for a deer hunt.

The 338's have bullets that allow standard twist factory barrels to be used. The 375's are worth looking at now with the handy little 375Ruger available, but the high BC bullets are all so heavy that the bullets go too slow. Some of them require twists much faster than the commonly found .375" 1in12".

So, the go-to all-around practical calibre that includes up-close as well as 400 yards is the .338". (And for Tanzania one needs a .375 to be legal, so I just don't see a 9.3 for me this decade. I like bigger than 338 or 375 for buffalo, anyway. And my 110 pound wife thinks the 375Ruger is just fine.)

The 338 is basically a stateside caliber and plains game fun gun. If someone can't get it done with a 338, then they probably need to go a lot bigger.